SOME TECHNICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL WONDERS OF THE WORLD

SOME OLD WONDERS

GREAT PYRAMID OF GIZA

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest and largest pyramid in the world located in El Giza, Egypt. It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact.

The Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the ancient world and served as the tomb to Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu.

The pyramid was constructed in 2580–2560 BC.

It was built by moving huge stones from a quarry and dragging and lifting them into place.

In spite of being very old structures the way in which the pyramid was made is an engineering marvel.

The pyramid was constructed by slaves using Tura limestone with several engineers overlooking the construction.

COLOSSEUM OF ROME

The Colosseum is an oval Amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy.

The Colosseum is built of concrete and sand, it is the largest amphitheatre ever built and one of the greatest works of architecture and engineering.

Construction began under the emperor Vespasian in 72 AD, and was completed in 80 AD under his successor and heir Titus.

The Colosseum could hold, it is estimated, between 50,000 and 80,000 spectators, having an average audience of some 65,000 spectators.

It was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles and dramas based on Classical mythology.

Slaves did most of the unskilled manual labor While teams of professional Roman builders undertook the more specialized tasks necessary for building.

MACHU PICCHU

Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca site located in the Cusco Region, Urubamba Province, Machu picchu District in Peru.

It is situated on a mountain ridge in the Cusco Region.

Machu Picchu was built around 1450, at the height of the Inca Empire.

The site is roughly divided into an urban sector and an agricultural sector, and into an upper town and a lower town.

The central buildings of Machu Picchu use the classical Inca architectural style of polished dry-stone walls of regular shape. The Incas were masters of this technique, called ashlar.

Machu Picchu was declared a Peruvian Historical Sanctuary in 1981 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

World’s Longest Wall.

Construction: made of stone, brick, tamped earth, wood and other materials.

Build by: Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China.

Reason: Built to protect the Chinese states and empires against the raids.

Established: 220–206 BCE.

Location: From Dandong in the east, to Lop Lake in the west of Inner Mongolia in China.

Length: 21,196 km.

In 2001, Neil Armstrong stated about the view from Apollo 11: “I do not believe that, at least with my eyes, there would be any man-made object that I could see”.

EIFFEL TOWER

Location: 7th arrondissement, Paris, France.

Construction: Started-28 January 1887.

Completed-15 March 1889.

Opened-31 March 1889.

Owner: City of Paris, France.

Height: 65 m.

Used As: Observation Tower, Radio Broadcasting Tower.

Design And Construction: Architect – Stephen Sauvestre.

Structural Engineer- Maurice Koechlin, Émile Nouguier.

Main Contractor – Compagnie des Etablissements Eiffel.

LEANING TOWER OF PISA

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is a freestanding bell tower.

Height : 56.67 m

Weight : 14,700 metric tons

Angle Of Lean : 5.5 degree

Architect : Bonanno Pisano

Affiliation : Roman Catholic

District: Tuscany

Construction : Started – 14th August, 1173,

Completed – 1372

Technical Details : There are 7 bells, Used as watch tower

Materials : Marbles, Stone.

ELLORA CAVES

Ellora is an archaeological site 29 km north-west of the city of Aurangabad in Maharashtra built by the Rashtrakuta dynasty.

There are Hindu, Buddhist and Jain caves.

Cave 16, also known as the Kailasa temple recall Mount Kailash, the abode of Bhagwan Shiv .The Dashavatara(Cave 15) include the ten avatars of Vishnu.

The five Jain caves at Ellora belong to the ninth and tenth centuries. Jain caves reveal specific dimensions of Jain philosophy and tradition.

The Buddhist caves includes carvings of Gautama Buddha,bodhisattvas and saints.

Ellora occupies a relatively flat region of the Western Ghats.

TAJ MAHAL

The Taj Mahal is a white marble mausoleum located on the southern bank of the Yamuna River in the Indian city of Agra.

It was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his favorite wife of three, Mumtaz Mahal.

Construction of the mausoleum was essentially completed in 1643 which employed around 20,000 artisans .

Exterior decorations throughout the complex are passages from the Qur’an. The calligraphy was created in 1609 by a calligrapher named Abdul Haq.

The inlay work is not pietra dura, but a lapidary of precious and semiprecious gemstones.

The Taj Mahal complex is bordered on three sides by crenellated red sandstone walls; the side facing the river is open.

NOW SOME MODERN WONDERS

CHUNNEL TUNNEL

The Channel Tunnel also known as the Chunnel tunnel or the Eurostar tunnel is the longest undersea railroad tunnel in the world.

The tunnel links Folkestone, Kent, in the United Kingdom, with Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais, near Calais in northern France.

The tunnel passes beneath the English Channel and the Strait of Dover.

The idea of a cross-channel tunnel was first brought to light by Albert Mathieu, a French mining engineer in 1802.

The construction of the tunnel was started in 1975 and was completed in 1994 by working from both the English and French side of the channel.

The tunnel carries high-speed Eurostar passenger trains, the Eurotunnel Shuttle for road vehicles—the largest such transport in the world—and international freight trains.

BEIJING NATIONAL STADIUM

Beijing National Stadium, officially the National Stadium in China was used in the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics and has a capacity of 80,000.

The design was by the study of Chinese ceramics.

The bird’s nest had a construction budget of $ 290 million and its construction was started 2003 and was completed in 2007.

The stadium used “random-looking additional steel” in order to hide steel supports for the retractable roof of the stadium.

Twenty-four trussed columns encase the inner bowl.

The stadium has several advanced features and water conservation features.

BURJ KHALIFA

Tallest artificial structure in the world.

Architectural Style: Neo Futurism.

Construction : Started- 6th January, 2004.

Completed- 30th December, 2009. Opened- 4th January, 2010.

Cost: USD $ 1.5 billion.

Height: 2,722 ft.

Architect: Adrian Smith at SOM

Developer: Emaar Properties

Structural Engineer: Bill Baker

Technical Details: 163 floors, 57 lifts,

Floor area- 309, 473 sq-m.

AKASHI KAIKYO BRIDGE

The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge is a suspension bridge in Japan, which links the city of Kobe on the Japanese mainland of Honshu to Iwaya on Awaji Island.

Akashi Strait in Japan often experiences severe storm. The Japanese government developed plans for a suspension bridge to cross the strait.

The construction of the bridge started in 1988 and the bridge was opened for public use in 1998.

The bridge was designed with a two hinged stiffening girder system, allowing the structure to withstand winds of 286 kilometers per hour (178 mph), earthquakes measuring up to magnitude 8.5, and harsh sea currents.

The bridge also contains tuned mass dampers that are designed to operate at the resonance frequency of the bridge to dampen forces.

The total cost is estimated at 500 billion yen.

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

The Hubble Space Telescope is one of the largest and most versatile space telescopes which still remains in operation.

The telescope is named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble and the Hubble’s four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared spectra.

The construction of the telescope was started in 1970 and was completed and launched in 1990.

Hubble can take extremely high-resolution images and has recorded some of the most detailed visible-light images ever, leading to breakthroughs in astrophysics.

Hubble is the only telescope designed to be serviced in space by astronauts.

Hubble’s success over the years has lead to huge advancements in space study and space equipment design.

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

Call Sign : Alpha Station

Crew : Currently Onboard 6

Launch : 20 November,1998

Launch Pad : Kennedy LC-39

Height : 20 m

Average Speed : 7.66 kmps

Orbital Period : 92.69 minutes

Flying Laboratory : Research Fields Include ASTROBIOLOGY, ASTRONOMY, Human Research Including Space Medicine, Space Weather, and Weather on Earth (METEROLOGY).

Mission : NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, and CSA.

LARGE HADRON COLLIDER

Large Hadron Collider(LHC) : world’s largest and most powerful particle collider.

Built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).

On 20 November 2009, low-energy beams circulated in the tunnel for the first time.

An initial focus of research was to investigate the possible existence of the Higgs boson.